How do you come up with an interesting/catchy melody?

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kuthoerrr89

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Joined
Jan 16, 2010
Location
Rotterdam
Well, probably alot of people are struggling with creating a good melody of synths and whatnot. So am i. It's probably one of my weakness points.

How do you guys come up with something good? Do you use scales or just come up with something that sounds good etc?

My melodies are usually 4 notes and then I sort of stretch it over a song but I wanna make some solid stuff. Almost symphony-like!

I'm interested to hear how you guys come up with stuff.
 
I use all kinds of things like scales, picking a root key for your entire tune, chord progressions, arpeggios and more!
 
Your best plan here would be to sample, nothing beats a well places sample layered with some melodic synths.. Of course, to each it's own though
 
I like to sample stuff. Reason for that is cuz i find my best stuff comes out when i base a melody around sample. Also for any track i make the melody is always evolving as i go along, for example. Ill make a 16bar phrase of some atmospheres and just change around a couple of samples and BANG, sounds fresh.

or just somthing i've thought up.
 
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duttymonster said:
have you got a midi keyboard? if not, this will help - notation straight to sequencer really hampers ya flow.
Click to expand...

I second that! using a keyboard really makes a diffrence just wish i didn't buy a frickin half sized keyboard :P

Another thing i do sometimes (partly because of the size of my keyboard) i change the pitch up or down a few semitones on the vst, made some good to bad melodys that way.
 
Yeah I got a midi keyboard (also a laptop sized one with 25 keys) and yeah i also use pitch changing, but i guess some piano lessons would be handy.

i guess it's back to trial and error melody-wise for me!

btw is Soundcloud down or having maintence atm? I can't even get to my dashboard
 
kuthoerrr89 said:
Yeah I got a midi keyboard (also a laptop sized one with 25 keys) and yeah i also use pitch changing, but i guess some piano lessons would be handy.

i guess it's back to trial and error melody-wise for me!

btw is Soundcloud down or having maintence atm? I can't even get to my dashboard
Click to expand...

maybe having a reference for scales would help? there was one posted in production recently.

i dunno - i can always seem to hit a few chords by trial and error - i did have piano lessons as a kid though, so maybe some of it stuck?

there will be nuff little helpful tutorials on youtube innit.
 
I use alot of drums at a fast sequence
So i find that the drum accents actually compliment the bass toward another direction,
So changing kits is a basic principal lol
Otherwise i just use one note thats all
And let filtering and layering of everything else alter the melody
Almost as if the melody is being assumed by your ears ;)
 
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i really like my "complete idiot's guide to music theory" book - best studio money spent yet, i think.

imo, you don't always need a great melody. if you have a really good bassline (thick, lots of movement/automation), i think you can get away with a simpler melody. but if your bass is really simple, you are gonna need that sick hook.
 
taking some time to learn music theory itself can be tedious. my advice would be teach yourself (or buy lessons if you get into it and enjoy it) how to play an instrument. the obvious choice would be to play the keyboard as a producer, but this isnt a strict thing. understanding music, meolody, chord sequences etc comes when your playing other peoples stuff. after a while in your head ideas will become more refined and jamming on your instrument can produce some really interesting ideas. it's all about progression and understanding. make sure the feeling and soul is in your music and practice playing music by artist who inspire you.

also having a music theory reference book to hand is always a help if you cant pluck keys, chords and scales from your head.

practice practice practice.
 
I usually work out a 2-4 bar loop thats going to sit underneath the main hook, this could even be just like 2 notes repeating. Then I make a bass part over the top of it and this could range from 8, 16 to 32 bars. It varies from tune to tune really! Sometimes i end up sitting at the keyboard for an hour or two before I get something i'm truly happy with and other times I could get something i like straight away
 
When I have the basic rhytm laid out I sing to it (more like a doodle) then load up massive, make some synth and lay down the notes. Then change everything and start a new tune from scratch.
 
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